Apartment Finance and Budget Help

Tips for Saving Hot Water and Money

Ways to reduce your bills by saving energy and waterBy Courtney Ronan

As we turn our clocks back this fall and bundle up for the arrival of Old Man Winter once again, we pledge to be thrifty with our hot water consumption, be it ever so tempting to stand for minutes at a time under the showerhead each morning.

The longer we stand underneath that hot water, the longer we can avoid the arrival of goose bumps and shivers. Winter mornings aren't easy but high utility bills are even harder.

We waste hot water in several different ways on a daily basis, but your showerhead is the worst culprit in your home. Short of placing a timer in your bathroom, that old resolution to spend "just five minutes" in the shower in order to save both hot water and money is one that even the most disciplined penny-pincher will break.

While spending less time underneath the showerhead is an excellent way to start saving money this winter, why not start with less painful measures, and leave the hardest one for last?

We've all heard the recommendation to shut off the faucet while we brush our teeth and shave, but that's just one occasion during which our minds wander while the water rushes down the drain.

When we wash the dinner dishes, we're often talking on the phone, chatting with the kids or listening to the television while the water runs. Do yourself a favor, and shut off the water while you're scrubbing those casserole dishes.

Have you ever stopped to consider that over the course of a few minutes, you can literally let gallons of hot water run down the drain that you're not even using while you're scrubbing the dishes? And instead of pouring liquid soap on each dish and letting a steady stream of hot water run over them individually, why not fill the sink with hot, sudsy water instead? You'll consume a lot less water.

If you live alone, or if it's just you and your spouse, consider hand-washing your dishes rather than using your dishwasher, which consumes anywhere from 7 gallons to 14 gallons of hot water per cycle. If hand-washing is too much trouble, go ahead -- use your dishwasher. But make sure it's completely full before starting the cycle.

When you wash your hands at the bathroom sink, do you habitually reach for the hot water handle? Switch to cold water, instead. There's little point in consuming hot water for something that takes less than a minute to do. Besides, because your water has to travel from the tank to the tap, the faucet has to flow for about a minute for the water to become hot. So you're not doing yourself any favors by reaching for the hot water handle. You've caused the water to leave the tank, and what you'll get will be lukewarm at best.

Got a leaky faucet in your home? While you're lying in bed at night listening to that familiar drip, drip, drip, you might consider that it's causing a drain, drain, drain in your finances. Those drips add up to a large amount of water.

Utility companies estimate that a leaky faucet dripping at the rate of one drop per second will cost a homeowner approximately 20 cents to 25 cents per day. Before you wave it off as "just change," do the math. That's a lot of quarters each month.

Either head to your nearest hardware store, and purchase a new washer; or call a professional. The money you spend on an expert is a one-time expense, and you'll earn it back and then some when you start saving money with a faucet that doesn't drip. And you'll certainly sleep better, so how can you lose?

When washing your clothes in your washing machine, use the cold water cycle. Your clothes won't mind, and neither will you. You'll save considerable amounts of hot water. Make sure you wash only full loads of clothing (don't run lighter loads through "small" or "medium" cycles), and place the switch on your washing machine to the "short" or "extra short" cycle to save both electricity and water.

If your bathroom has a shower/bathtub combination, you've probably noticed that your faucet continues a steady stream or drip while you take a shower. If that's the case, you're wasting a fairly large amount of hot water with every use of your shower. Unscrew the spout if you can, and inspect it for water deposits (which have a greenish, scaly appearance). You can either attempt to remove those deposits by soaking the spout in white vinegar; or head to your hardware store and purchase a new spout. Either method should help to alleviate the problem.

And, while we're in the bathroom, it is indeed in the best interest of your bank account and your hot water supply to spend a shorter time underneath that showerhead. You might consider switching to baths, instead, or if you don't have time during the week, take baths on weekends. You'll be saving hot water at least two days a week, which is better than nothing.

You don't have to live a live of self-deprivation, but even the smallest measures can pay sizeable dividends in terms of your water consumption and your monthly utility bill. And consider this: You can buy some new sweaters and a warm bathrobe with all of that money you'll be saving.

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